


Overcast Dawn

by Ocearna



Series: Overcast Universe [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Gen, baby kyoya, baby tsuna, prequel to Overcast Skies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23642911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocearna/pseuds/Ocearna
Summary: Tsuna and Hibari meet as children under just the right circumstances, and the future of this universe will never be the same.Prequel to Overcast Skies. Either can be read first.
Series: Overcast Universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702087
Comments: 64
Kudos: 594
Collections: 💙





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, hi. I'm apparently insane. I wrote a thing about Tsuna and Hibari first meeting but I couldn't figure out how to fit it into Overcast Skies and then I had more ideas and... well. Overcast is now a series. XD Enjoy!

Kyoya did not like other children. 

His mother was understanding most of the time - something about it running in the family - but occasionally she would decide that some “socialising with other kids his age” was necessary and she would drag him to the local park. Kyoya did not enjoy it, ever, and would invariably end up climbing a tree somewhere on the outskirts of the park so he could avoid the noisy, messy children running around all the play equipment. 

Even at the age of six, Kyoya did not like noise (it hurt his sensitive ears), did not like crowding (kids did even stupider things when in groups) and did not like interacting with other children (they didn’t think like he did and they never understood his games). So he stayed away, hovering on the edges, and just watched.

(At the age of six, Kyoya’s Flames were distinctly Cloudy but leaned just the slightest bit more towards classic. Because outside of his family kids were stupid and adults were confusing and no one understood so why should he bother?

Until…)

A sound cuts through the noise of the park. A sound and a feeling, something like a warm fire on a cold night but with an overwhelming thread of fear and pain and sadness at something lost scoring through it.

Kyoya whirls, barely maintaining his perch on the branch, to frantically search for the source of that feeling and then--

There. 

A boy, young and tiny and oh so fluffy looking with that ridiculous mass of spiky hair. A boy who is being kicked and hit by a group of older boys who are surrounding him in the sandpit, the ruins of a sandcastle under their feet. A boy who looks weak and soft and pathetic but feels like he has the potential to become a lion if only he was given the chance…

Kyoya is off running before he even makes the conscious decision to. He picks up a stick on his way and speeds across the park, bulldozing through everything and everyone in his way. This moment feels important - that _boy_ feels important - in a way he doesn’t yet understand except at the most instinctual level and nothing will stop him from saving that boy from his tormentors.

After all, Kyoya is six and he dislikes a lot of things but there are three things he does like: soft things (his room is full of plushies and pillows), small animals (he has a veritable zoo of strays at home) and martial arts movies.

It takes mere moments to down two of the older kids with knocks to their heads and then places himself between them and the smaller boy. The injured kids fall back, clutching their heads and sniffling in a way that might precede wailing. The rest pause and stare, eyes wide, at the sudden interruption to their fun. This isn’t the first time they have bullied another kid, nowhere near, but it is the first time another kid has stepped in like this. 

Kyoya doesn’t say anything, just holds his stick in front of him like a sword and glares. 

One of the bigger kids - taller and older looking than the rest - finally gets sick of the staring contest. “Back off, stupid. You mess with us and we’ll hurt you too!”

But Kyoya is a Cloud, even if he is only young, and fear isn’t something his brain really understands. Instead, he takes that as a challenge and, with all the grace an untrained but action movie-obsessed six-year-old can manage, attacks the group of bullies.

* * *

Later, once the bullies have been bruised and their egos shattered and their guardians have appeared to hustle them away from the “awful, violent Hibari boy”, Kyoya finally turns to look at the boy he had been protecting.

The boy is even smaller and fluffier this close up, swathed in clothes that look a size too big and covered in sand and bruises. He doesn’t seem to care though. He struggles to his feet, a brilliant grin on his face, and bows to Kyoya.

“Thank you for rescuing me!” he says, voice soft but full of energy and happiness. “I’m Tsunayoshi Sawada!”

Kyoya blinks, taken aback by how happy the boy - Tsunayoshi - is despite all his injuries.

“...Kyoya Hibari.”

Tsunayoshi’s grin widens even further - somehow - and his eyes stare into Kyoya’s and suddenly, suddenly Kyoya feels _seen_ . He feels like this tiny scrap of a boy has looked into his heart and his soul and seen the truth of who he is… and _accepted_ it. 

Something in Kyoya flickers and grows, interested and cautiously hopeful, and prods at that feeling of fire and warmth that seems to come from Tsunayoshi. 

The moment is broken when Tsunayoshi breaks their gazes and plops back down onto the sand, hands already moving to make a pile for a new castle.

“Do you want to play?” Tsunayoshi asks and Kyoya’s hope of someone who understands him - of a _friend_ \- dies a little, thinking he’s about to be asked to play some asinine game. But then: “You could be my knight!”

Kyoya freezes, startled. “Your… knight?” he asks.

“Mmhmm,” Tsunayoshi hums. “I want to build the biggest castle but those stupid bullies keep knocking it down. Obviously I need a knight to roam around and protect me and the castle from the bad guys!” Tsunayoshi looks up and this time there is a flicker of something orange and warm and _knowing_ in his eyes as he asks, “So, do you wanna be my knight?”

(“Guardian” isn’t an arbitrarily chosen word for a Sky’s elements. In every culture that has ever discovered Flames, they chose a similar word; something that means “to protect”. That’s because in every culture and in every Flame user, there is something about those words that rings true on an instinctive level, deep down in the core of their Flames. Something that triggers someone’s Flames to flare and search and _connect._

“Knight” may not mean quite the same thing, but it’s close enough.)

* * *

Kyoya spends three hours lurking in the trees nearest to the sandpit before Tsunayoshi's mother comes to take him home, though he only has to intervene one more time when a group of kids try to take over. They scatter with a glare and a wave of the stick he still held onto, and Tsunayoshi beams up at him then goes back to building his castle and… Kyoya loves it. He loves it in the way he loves curling up in the pile of pillows on his bed or in the way he loves petting the small animals he so often brings home. So he retreats back to the trees but he keeps an eye on the small fluffy boy who makes him feel so warm and he basks in the tiny sliver of warmth that seems to now be _his._

Kyoya is six when he meets Tsunayoshi Sawada and forms the first thread of Harmonisation and learns what it means to have something - some _one_ \- to protect. 

And Kyoya’s Cloud flames slip slightly more towards inverted.


	2. Chapter 2

It is only a few months after meeting Tsunayoshi - not even a full year - when Kyoya is woken from a nap by an awful, sickening, _tearing_ sensation. It isn’t anything physical but rather his soul crying out in pain as something is ripped from him, a jagged, hollow coldness replacing the beautiful warmth Kyoya had been carrying with him since _that day_. 

Kyoya manages to roll enough to throw up over the edge of the couch he is lying on, but the weakness in his muscles and the shakes wracking his body make it hard to move. He ends up flopped awkwardly on top of one arm, his head mostly hanging off the couch.

Apparently alerted by the sixth sense she seems to have, Kyoya’s mother appears in the doorway only moments later. She takes one look at the scene then is ducking out again, calling orders to the staff who would be somewhere nearby. 

Sure enough, in what feels like an eternity and yet no time at all later there is a staff member appearing with cloths and a bucket to clean the floor. His mother returns as well, a cold, damp cloth in one hand and a phone in the other. She carefully rolls Kyoya onto his side and gently holds the cloth to his forehead as she dials a number and waits for the call to go through.

A voice answers but Kyoya is too out of it to properly hear what the other person is saying, or even to really understand his mother’s words. He only hears her tone - harsh and quick and _dangerous_ \- and realises she is worried. Which is odd, because Kyoya can’t remember her ever being worried before.

Kyoya doesn’t have a chance to question her though, because his vision is swimming and his eyes are closing against his will. The last thing he feels before he slips into blissful unconsciousness is one last tiny surge of that warmth as if it was fighting against whatever had gone wrong but then it flickers and splutters then--

_Gone._

* * *

According to his mother Kyoya wakes up a few times over the next couple of days, but it takes until the third morning for him to truly be coherent. His body still shakes and it takes all his strength just to make it to the bathroom and back by himself, but his head is no longer spinning and his soul no longer feels like it has been torn in two. It still _aches_ and Kyoya hates the emptiness that fills the space that used to feel so _warm_ but Kyoya can work through it. He has to because his mother won’t explain anything or let him out of the house until he can make it through a meal without collapsing or zoning out. And he _needs_ to know what happened.

Days later, after some very confused doctors had cleared him of any physical problems, his mother sat him down to talk. He doesn’t understand half the things she says, but he got the gist. 

Tsunayoshi Sawada was a special type of human with a special type of energy in his soul that made him very strong. It also attracted other strong people, to help him fight and protect his territory. That was why Kyoya had felt that warmth - Tsunayoshi had given it to him, marking Kyoya as his and Tsunayoshi as Kyoya’s. 

But something had happened to Tsunayoshi and now his fire was… hidden. Locked away. Not _gone_ , not entirely, but sealed in a way that meant the link between his soul and Kyoya’s had broken, snuffing out the piece of Tsunayoshi’s fire that Kyoya had been carrying. 

Kyoya’s mother is almost raging as she describes the Tsunayoshi Sawada she had seen when she had stopped by his house. Tsunayoshi had slept for longer than Kyoya had, and even now he barely got out of bed. His smile was gone, replaced most of the time by quiet tears of loss and frustration. His body wouldn’t work the way he was used to, as if he had lost a limb or an organ and was struggling to make up for it. He tripped over nothing constantly, already covered in bruises, he misjudged where things including his own limbs were all the time and his mind was too clouded to process anything complicated. 

In short, he was nothing like the bright, happy child Kyoya had met. And there was nothing they can do.

Kyoya shouts and cries and begs but the answer is always the same: only someone with similar abilities to Tsunayoshi’s could ever hope to undo whatever has been done, and it is too dangerous to bring someone like that to Namimori without knowing more about what happened. If they could even find someone capable of it, considering how rare that type of person was.

Mourning the loss of his friend - his _only_ friend - and that beautiful fire that had made Kyoya feel so very _alive_ , Kyoya feels true fear for the first time. Fear for who could have done this, fear for _why_ they did it. Fear for the future, and what it will be like after knowing what it _could be_ for such a brief period. 

Fear for what will happen to Tsunayoshi Sawada now that he can hardly function, let alone protect himself. 

* * *

Later, alone in his room when he is meant to be asleep, Kyoya stares up at the ceiling and tries to remember the feeling of kind, beautiful warmth settled within his soul. Already the memory is fading though, and Kyoya fears that all too soon he will forget it entirely. 

_“Do you wanna be my knight?”_

Kyoya snarls and twists to bury his head in his pillow, fear and sorrow turning to loathing. Some knight he was! His job had been to protect Tsunayoshi, and he had _failed_ . He hadn’t even been able to do anything when he had felt Tsunayoshi’s pain over their bond, instead being _sick_ and passing out like some _weakling_. 

_“Kyoya! You’re back!”_

Memories of times he had seen Tsunayoshi flash through his mind and tears start to gather in his eyes. The bright smiles, the happy laughter, and the games that _made sense_ \- gone. They were all gone! 

_“Y’know, maybe knight doesn’t suit you, Kyoya. You’re more like a dragon! All angry growls and dropping down from the sky and taking people out in one hit!” Tsuna had laughed, arms waving to illustrate his points. “All you need is fire to breathe and sharp teeth to bite people and you would be the best dragon ever!”_

Hatred for himself and for whoever did this rolls around in Kyoya’s mind and slowly turns to rage. The heat of it - so similar and yet so different to the fire that had filled him only a week ago - finally igniting a passion - a _will_ \- that had been missing since his soul had gone cold. A fire of his own swells within his soul - small and distant and not as warm but very much _there_ \- and somehow he knows that it has always been there but now it is different, changed by his decision to protect a _person_ rather than a thing or a place. 

That night, as he stared into the dark with rage devouring his heart and Inverted Cloud Flames settling into his soul, Kyoya promised himself that he would _not_ fail again. He would not be _weak_ enough that someone would harm him or his! He would protect Tsunayoshi, whether or not they could ever rebuild their bond. And if anyone tried to stop him…

He would _bite them to death._


End file.
